(TLDR: worth doing. More detailed review below)

I echo what many others have already said - the rooms are very immersive, designed with serious artistic focus. You won’t be seeing Bunnings 4 digit locks or laminated paper clues with italicised times new roman font here.

On that note, it is definitely not an ‘escape’ room in the sense of just solving puzzles to escape OUT of the room, but more of an escape in terms of escaping INTO a ‘world’ and diving into the narrative, the characters and the like.

Note: It’s not easy to write reviews on escape rooms because specificity would mean spoilers, but being too vague makes the review a bit less useful, so here is hopefully my balanced attempt at giving a helpful review that won’t spoil.

Crumbling Prince -

the pacing and tempo of the experience can best be summed up by my ending reflective comment ‘Oh, 80 minutes had passed already?’.

I appreciated the tactile searching for items, which were hidden with thoughtful intent (meaning, it wasn’t just locked up somewhere...because it was locked up somewhere).

The AI Prince was very fascinating - a big deviation from the typical walkie talkie or some computer screen in the corner that spews out hints. His interaction pushed the story along and triggered various sensory elements (lights, music, hints). You are left with the feeling that this was a ’theatrical’ experience of sorts.

Part 2 delves deeper into the backstory and involves much more problem solving, and less dealing with the aforementioned AI Prince. It continues to give pleasant surprises in terms of intentional puzzles and using technology to enhance the experience.

To be honest, sequels are never easy to make happen (think movies) since it may not hold the allure of the initial world building + character development of the first instalment, but part 2 was an overall good job.

Deep space -

The AI is again a highlight. The dog connects with you and helps give a layer of depth to the escape - it wasn’t just ‘do a list of things’ on the spaceship. Perhaps this room is best described as those ‘choose your own adventure’ story books or games, where your choices have consequences.

Like the other rooms, the voiceovers and sound design is top notch - giving a very ’spatial’ feel to what space travel would feel, including distant sounds, cabin alarms etc. It is faithful to the genre and not just some random background music that just loops for the duration of the experience.

The puzzles were a variety - some tactile involving finding things hidden, sometimes certain compartments would open, sometimes you rebooted a system, sometimes decoding, sometimes using the intermediary airlock as a transfer hub.

(On our plays, a particular item that needs to be operated remotely was a recurring pain point for us due to its malfunctioning, but the game creators have graciously accepted our issues with that item.)

The different stakeholders of the deep space story was quite well crafted. It definitely got me thinking and conjecturing on what was going on. I always appreciate survival stories that involve conflict of interest and withholding information for a later reveal. (apologies I can’t be too specific otherwise it runs into spoiler territory).

Part 2 was not as littered with puzzles as the first part, and in some senses was less memorable than the first. One shining light though would be the antagonistic AI (not the aforementioned dog - he’s too wholesome) - in that, it’s not often that you are up against a passionately aggressive voice who wants to dictate your actions. Ukiyo did well in adjusting the different paths and outcomes through their design mapping.

Overall I’d recommend that you try all 4 rooms if you can.

If time and cost is an issue, try the first instalments of both.

Allow some time post-escape to chat and discuss about the story, about what puzzles who solved, and the vibe/world of the room.